Venue & Hotel

Agenda

Day 1 | Monday, March 27

Early Registration | 8:00am-8:00pmSeaholm Power Plant (Inside the west end)

Transportation from the Intercontinental Hotel and the Sheraton Hotel to the Seaholm Power Venue will be available for attendees who are not attending any tours will be available from 11 am to 3 pm.

Tours | 9:00am-12:30pmSeaholm Power Plant (Inside the west end) // Tours depart from and arrive back at this venue. Transportation from the Intercontinental Hotel to the Seaholm Power Plant Venue will be available from 8am to 10am for attendees.

ERCOT Operations Center: Attendees will view the nerve center of the Texas grid. They will also learn how ERCOT addresses grid security, how ERCOT is managing renewables, and get a 101 overview of how ERCOT operates. Travel Shuttle provided by ETS to and from the tour. The shuttle departs at 9 am and arrives back to the conference at 12:30 pm. A light lunch will be served.

Austin Energy Control Room: Attendees will tour Austin Energy’s state-of-the art transmission and distribution Control Room; it also houses electric service delivery, corporate security and IT workgroups. The facility supports system reliability while contributing to the utility’s energy conservation and peak demand reduction goals. Travel Shuttle provided by ETS to and from the tour. The shuttle departs at 10:30 am and arrives back to the conference at 12:30 pm. A light lunch will be served.

Pecan Street: Mueller neighborhood and Pike Powers Lab tour hosted by Pecan Street, Inc. Travel Shuttle provided by ETS to and from the tour. The shuttle departs at 10:30 am and arrives back to the conference at 12:30 pm. A light lunch will be served.

IBM Design Studio: The IBM Design studio in Austin was built to influence how the global technology company designs all its software from big data, to cloud computing, to social software and cognitive solutions of the kind used in its well-known Watson project. Travel Shuttle provided by ETS to and from the tour. The shuttle departs at 10:30 am and arrives back to the conference at 12:30 pm. A light lunch will be served.

Open Mic | 1:25pm-2:10pmSeaholm Power Plant (Inside the west end)

Great thinkers get 10 minutes, two props, and one take to address what they see as design for energy, and what it means to the future of energy. A fascinating outside the lines approach to hearing from dynamic and singular voices in the chorus of visionaries at ETS17.

ETS Talk | 2:10pm-2:25pmSeaholm Power Plant (Inside the west end)

The Energy Democracy: Designing the New Energy Delivery Model: The opportunity for a decarbonized energy infrastructure in the U.S. is here — an energy delivery model that doesn’t rely on carbon while still ensuring customers have affordable, accessible energy. What does it take to design and realize this future? Who needs to be involved? Seavers will discuss how it is no longer “business as usual” for utilities, and how they can help accelerate the pace of change to this new model.

Dean Seavers – President, National Grid U.S.

General Session Panel | 2:25pm-3:25pmSeaholm Power Plant (Inside the west end)

Customers-in-Charge // Redefining the Utility-Customer Relationship: Redefining the Utility-Customer Relationship: How do we empower customers in the decarbonized energy transformation? What will it take to get true participation that places customers in charge of their energy decisions? This panel will discuss what this new relationship can look like, and how the right tools and information can drive significant change from customers.

Winners of the Solar Revere Data Hackathon Hackathon will be announced and display their solar data solutions.

Networking Break | 3:30pm-4:00pmSeaholm Power Plant (Inside the west end).

Austin Energy Electric Drive Launch | 4:00pm-4:40pmElectric Drive

Austin Energy has developed a showcase for electric transportation in the heart of downtown Austin called Electric Drive. Located in the Seaholm Eco District, (a portion of West 2nd Street, between Walter Seaholm Drive and Sandra Muraida Way) Electric Drive is a transportation innovation hub that features DC fast charging for charging in minutes as opposed to hours, as well as level 2 charging for customers to use while they enjoy other aspects of the Eco District. A solar- powered kiosk that includes charging for electric bikes, scooters, motorcycles, mopeds, and hand held devices can also be found on the street. Electric Drive is a key component of the Plug-In EVerywhere℠ network and demonstrates Austin as a Smart City leader in electric transportation.

Networking Reception | 5:30pm-7:00pmSeaholm Power Plant (Inside the west end). Transportation will be provided by ETS to shuttle attendees back from the Seaholm Power Plant venue to their respective hotels (Intercontinental, Sheraton, etc.)

ETS Talk | 9:00am-9:15am800 Congress

ETS Talk | 9:15am-9:30am800 Congress

The Electricity Value Network: The Electricity Value Network: The electricity industry is undergoing a transformation. Complex interrelationships across the entire energy ecosystem pose challenges to power leaders everywhere. Distributed generation, renewables, smart grids, storage and prosumers are accelerating the rate of change. By embracing digitalization, companies can apply unprecedented insights, new capabilities and innovative business models to create enormous opportunities.

Ganesh Bell – Chief Digital Officer and GM, GE Power

General Session Panel | 9:30am-10:15am800 Congress

The Next Utility // Crafting New Utility Business Models: As power and utility companies seek growth opportunities, they are increasingly investing in, testing, and launching digitally-driven and digitally-enabled business models to tap new sources of value for customers, grid operators, and others across the ecosystem while focusing on energy resources, energy connectivity and retail and services.

Networking Break | 10:15am-10:45am800 Congress

Keynote Fireside Chat | 10:45am-11:30am800 Congress

Designing for Risk // Reliability and Resilience in Hurricane Matthew: Hurricane Matthew was a destructive, long-lived storm that became the first Category 5 Atlantic hurricane since 2007. In its brush with the United States, millions of customers lost power. How can design-based approaches help utilities manage risks and rapidly recover from events such as Matthew? And how can they design to handle possible unanticipated outcomes? This fireside chat looks at the hurricane-hardening work by FPL, and how these efforts enabled FPL to achieve incredible recovery speeds from Hurricane Matthew.

General Session Panel | 11:30am-12:15pm800 Congress

Energy Policy Innovation: The East, The West, and Texas: Abstract: What is driving change for different regions with regard to energy? How do energy visions vary across North America? Where do they come together and what can the rest of the country learn from their experiences?

Lunch & Networking Break | 12:15pm-1:30pmPerry’s Steakhouse

Building a Leading Edge DRMS: Driving benefits through a comprehensive utility grade demand response system that easily integrates with other enterprise applications and delivers accurate load forecasting and M&V.

Designing for the Future of Customer Engagement: Utility-customer relationships are undergoing significant change, requiring companies to think differently about how they approach the traditional customer service model. Getting the future vision to work requires the customers to come along. Or maybe not. Our panelists debate how much utilities really need to do achieve mutual goals—and how to balance the risk in implementing such plans.

Driving DER Innovation in Grid Design: The promise of DERs is growing at a rapid clip across the U.S., but such growth also brings up a variety challenges for customers, solution providers, and utilities. This panel will examine innovative approaches to DER that can benefit both customers and utilities today and in the near future. The session will address optimal DER mix strategies, customer engagement and education for behind the meter DERs, and incorporating Demand Response and EE into DER programs.

Networking Break | 2:30pm-2:45pmIntercontinental Hotel

Crafting New Partnerships for Next-Generation Infrastructure: As smart infrastructure and smart cities progress it’s not just about deploying new technologies but forming new partnerships and collaborations as well. In a world that blurs the lines between traditional utility-owned, community-owned and customer-owned assets, who owns what? And how do we create the right partnerships to fuel the innovation needed for truly smart utilities and cities? This session discusses the opportunities for developing the new partnerships and technology platforms needed for grid and city modernization.

Business Model Innovation Around the Meter: Power and utility companies are increasingly using digitalization to change their business models to compete in a rapidly changing and disruptive power market driven by distributed generation, renewables, smart grids, storage, digitalization, non-traditional competitors and prosumers. MULTI-DIRECTIONAL IS THE NEW GRID – The future will increasingly be defined by digitally enabled, intelligent grid technology, multi-directional power flows and higher quality power.

Using Data Analytics to Drive DER and DR Planning: Many states are adopting aggressive renewables goals and are grappling with how to develop the necessary plans that account for evolving external factors and growing customer participation. This session will discuss how to use data analytics to evaluate various scenarios and integrate all factors to view them holistically and drive more effective planning.

Networking Break | 3:30pm-3:50pmIntercontinental Hotel

Creating a Culture of Innovation and Delivering Outcomes: A digital transformation requires a vision, strategy, and roadmap that is aligned with long-term business goals and metrics. Success will be determined by the ability to set a strategy, deliver results, cultivate partnerships, transform culture, and capture growth opportunities. Digitalization facilitates a detailed understanding of entire EVN asset disposition, location, health and history that feeds capital planning and strategy.

Networking Reception | 5:05pm-7:00pmIntercontinental Hotel – SFA Bar

Day 3 | Wednesday, March 29

General Attendee Breakfast & Networking | 7:00am-8:00am800 Congress

Welcome & Recap | 8:00am-8:15am800 Congress

General Session Panel | 8:15am-9:00am800 Congress

Crafting Wholesale Markets For The Next Generation: Across the country, power grids are witnessing the dynamic emergence of numerous energy resources. Whether utility-scale wind, solar and storage projects, or distributed energy resources—such as EVs, rooftop solar, and smart thermostats—the elements of a new ecosystem are rapidly emerging. This poses both a challenge and an opportunity for grid planners and raises many questions: How do we set the rules of the sandbox to get the desired outcomes? How do we establish the proper incentives so that as these new technologies and business models arrive, they do what we want them to do? This panel will explore some of these solutions to date, as well as issues and potential market designs for the power grid of the future.

ETS Talk | 9:00am-9:15am800 Congress

Applying Design-based Thinking for Energy

Andrew Burroughs – Partner, IDEO

ETS Talk | 9:15am-9:30am800 Congress

Creativity at Work: Most organizations are structured for streamlined execution, and employees are trained and incentivized to solve problems. However, to be truly innovative, organizations must also nurture creativity. That means making sure they are not just solving problems, but finding the right problems to solve. In this talk, Janaki Kumar will make the case for creativity at work and share strategies to foster a culture of innovation in your organization.

Janaki Kumar – Head of Design & Co-Innovation Center, SAP

ETS Talk | 9:30am-9:45am800 Congress

People and Partnerships to Power Innovation

Paula Gold-Williams – President & CEO, CPS Energy

Networking Break | 9:45am-10:10am800 Congress

General Session Panel | 10:10am-10:55am800 Congress

“As a Service” for Software and Energy: Software-as-a-service is changing the business proposition between technology providers and utilities. Can utilities, in turn, adopt the “as-a-service” concept to change the business proposition with their consumers? The “energy services utility” concept is already being embraced to support demand-side management—can it be expanded to allow a utility to view all of its products as energy services, offered in customized packages? Are there parallels between the software and energy models? What opportunities exist for the adoption of such business models, and what impediments must be overcome?

General Session Panel | 10:55am-11:40am800 Congress

Envisioning the Future of Natural Gas // Business Models, Partnerships, and Technology: This session explores the future of natural gas, including the opportunities and challenges facing the industry as well as where the business is heading. As natural gas evolves, what role does technology—including the Internet of Things and smart cities—play in driving change? And what sort of dialogue is needed among key partners involved with the safe and efficient delivery of natural gas to move forward with the future?

Virtual Reality Demonstration | 12:10am-12:30pm800 Congress

Building your Spatial Awareness: The most efficient use of resources is to share it. Think of Uber and AirBNB. The grid is a platform on which distributed energy resources can be shared and transacted, but to do so safely you must know exactly where it is. By building your spatial awareness you will reduce costs and risks today and improve customer service while building the capability and markets for tomorrow.

Ian McLeod – Head Of Smart Energy & Digital Asset Management, Enzen

Lunch & Networking Break | 12:30pm-2:00pmPerry’s Steakhouse

Resiliency and Reliability: From Jargon to Reality: As the Smart Grid market continues to expand, and the terminology becomes increasingly convoluted we want to open up a discussion with the players in this market to not only help define these common buzzwords but to explore and expand on lessons learned and expense and benefit justification for grid modernization strategies.

Designing the Grid of the Future: Using Storage to Improve Every Aspect of the Utility System: It is well known that energy storage has the ability to make renewables more reliable, but it can also do much more to improve the grid. Energy storage can act as a Swiss army knife for the grid due to its versatility and ability to adapt to grid’s changing needs – distributed generation, generation optimization, T&D deferral, ancillary services and more. In this session we will discuss how energy storage is being used today and how it can benefit the grid in the future.

Designing for Data // The Data Quality Foundation: Despite the promise of data and analytics for utilities, analytics still suffer from bad data. By designing a data quality-focused foundation, an organization can better deliver the more advanced analytics needed to deal with changes in the utility industry—from increasing customer transactions to greater grid intelligence to more distributed energy resources. With increasing competition, retailers and utilities require data and predictions they can trust. But what’s the best approach? And what factors should organizations be considering?

Networking Break | 3:00pm-3:15pmIntercontinental Hotel

Designing for the Unanticipated // Unintended Consequences: No matter how good a plan is, we can’t anticipate everything that will happen. As continue ahead with evolving technologies and energy business models, how do we plan for the unknown and grow from unanticipated outcomes?

Ready for Action // How Utilities Can Drive More Value for Their Customers: The deployments of next-generation customer engagement efforts — including energy efficiency and energy choice programs — are well on their way for many utilities. There significant opportunities available to customers, but many are not adopting programs at the rate utilities desire. What can utilities do to motivate their customers to act?

Designing and Operating for Reliability: Utilities today are facing increasing pressures due to decentralization and the increase in renewable energy supply. New types of equipment are being added to an increasingly interconnected grid and this is leading to new and multiplied reliability concerns – from changing equipment failure characteristics and criticality to power quality issues to cascading outages. This presentation will discuss mitigation opportunities including those that begin at design-time.

Transition Time | 4:00pm-4:25pmThe Townsend

General Session Short Film Premiere | 4:25pm-5:10pmThe Townsend

Switch: On January 1, 2002, Texas took a leap of faith. In a bold move for the largest electricity market in the U.S. and the 11th largest in the world, ERCOT launched the competitive retail electric market after the blessing by the Texas Legislature in 1999. Why would a state flip the switch on a well-entrenched monopoly marketplace? What drove Texas to empower its citizens with choice for electricity? Made possible by Direct Energy, Switch travels back to that pivotal time through the experiences of several influential pillars who observed firsthand the momentum that built to that moment of customer choice.

Networking Reception | 5:10pm-7:10pmThe Townsend

Day 4 | Thursday, March 30

General Attendee Breakfast & Networking | 7:00am-8:00am800 Congress

Welcome & Recap | 8:00am-8:15am800 Congress

Keynote Fireside Chat | 8:15am-8:35am800 Congress

Continuous Reinvention // The Emergence of New Products and Services for Utilities: From refrigerators to smoke detectors, our homes are becoming more connected to the appliances and devices that keep them functioning. Connected thermostats are some of the most popular smart home devices, offering both utilities and solution providers opportunities for new partnerships and new methods for engaging customers. How can these partnerships help both reach goals like fostering new service offerings and products, while giving customers more control? This session highlights one such partnership and examines future opportunities for organizations as we enter the new energy economy.

General Session Panel | 9:05am-9:50am800 Congress

Designing for Data // Data’s Influence on Utility IT Environments: As energy markets evolve, it’s increasingly clear that electricity is inextricably married to data. IT will soon be everywhere, sensors and communications costs will fall precipitously, and billions of connected devices may interact on a near real-time basis with power grids. How do we design and optimize for maximum speed and efficiency? What decisions will need to be made, and where? What architectures will be most suitable for these new challenges? And what will be the role of a centralized versus a more decentralized IT environment?

Keynote Fireside Chat | 10:00am-10:30am800 Congress

Thought Leader Of The Year Presentation | 10:30am-11:00am800 Congress

Anne Pramaggiore – President and Chief Executive Officer, ComEd

Networking Break | 11:00am-11:15am800 Congress

General Session Panel | 11:15am-12:00pm800 Congress

Cultivating Future Energy Talent: It has been estimated that fully 40% of America’s utility workforce will be eligible for retirement within a few years. This challenge also constitutes an enormous opportunity to staff up a revamped workforce. These employees can be equipped with an entirely new skills set better suited to the IT-centric utility of the future. But how do we identify, train, attract and retain the best and the brightest of the next generation? How do we find the people to not only keep the lights on, but to deal with technologies, challenges, and opportunities we haven’t even thought of yet?

Closing Session | 12:00pm-12:30pm800 Congress

Designing What’s Next for Energy: In this session we recap an exciting four days with our “keepers of the vibe.” Join us for a lively audience discussion about the key takeaways from the event, and identifying the most valuable insights coming out of ETS17.

Partner Event | 12:15pm-5:00pm800 Congress

Join S&C and the Smart Cities Council after ETS17 at the UT campus to hear from the University’s Associate Vice President for Utilities, Energy and Facilities Management, Juan Ontiveros share the UT Austin PEER certification story. Joining him will be Michael Webber, Deputy Director of the Energy Institute and Co-Director of the Clean Energy Incubator.